Author’s Note (and story behind the guide name):

First of all, every link within this guide is highlighted inblue to make it easier to find. Unlike my other guides, this does not deal with the class mechanics of the Control Wizard class but rather with feat allocations and gear choices in mod 14. It is your basic, “cookie cutter build.” Whilst I am against writing cookie cutter builds, recent circumstances in Neverwinter have made lead me to post this one. It is unlikely that I update this frequently, so reader beware, it is up to date as of the posting. If you are looking for a mechanics guide rather than a cookie cutter build, you can find my mechanics guidehere. The reason behind my sudden decision to post this is an unfortunate one and has to do with how information is stifled in this game, making it very difficult to find anything useful. This is due to the heavy handed moderation of both the official forums and the subreddit, which are unfortunately handled by someone who is not competent for the job. MMOminds is however, the voice of neverwinter when it comes to information, cited by many players regardless of whether they frequent the reddit or forums and I recommend players post their guides here as it is too large a cite for moderators to suppress. As a result of this, this is my “Uncensored” guide, as it is free of the constraints of both the official forums and the subreddit. Also, because I am openly showing support ofNW:UN.

How to contact me (Do not use Reddit or Forums):

For anyone wanting to get in touch to ask me questions, you can either find me onDiscordby the username Sharpedge#4765 or they can find me in the NW:UN Discord, which, if you are playing Neverwinter, is your best source of information and can be foundhere. I do not endorse the Official Forums or the Official Subreddit and do not recommend going to either of those as they are run by some of the most incompetent people in Neverwinter who have done so much damage to the flow of information within this game and have contributed to the decline of intelligent debate. For anyone wanting to learn anything about this game, those are some of the worst places you can go to.

A Note on Republishing:

If you intend to publish this on your website, please ask me on Discord, or in the comments of this guide. I would prefer in your request if you list the site you wish to upload it to as well. The chances are, I probably don’t mind, but the least you can do is ask me. I profit in no way from sharing my work and would appreciate if, at the very least, people who post copies of it ask me first.

Race and Ability Score Rolls:

The BiS race for CW is Tiefling or Human. For Single Target fights, Human wins, for AoE fights, Tiefling wins. Tiefling is much closer on Single Target to Human than Human is to Tiefling on AoE. I personally go Tiefling, for what it is worth. Metallic Dragonborn would be my third choice, but I wouldn’t pick it over either of the first 2, so don’t go out of your way to acquire one.

For CW, your primary attribute is Intelligence, followed by Charisma. When making a new character you should roll for the highest possible Intelligence score (18) and make sure you have 10 points in constitution. Either Strength or Dexterity can have 8 points in them, they are the both terrible stats for CW. On every level up you will want to allocate points evenly between Charisma and Intelligence.

Feats:

No explanations will be given as to why specific feats are chosen, if that is what you are after I recommend reading my mechanics guide rather than this breakdown. Heroic Feats are simple and are as follows:

Toughness 3/3.

Weapon Mastery 3/3.

Wizard’s Wrath 3/3.

For AoE put 1 point in Controlling Action, for Single Target put 1 point in Fight On.

Blighting Power 3/3

Arcane Enhancement gets 2 points.

For Single Target, 3/3 Focused Wizardry and 2 Learned Spellcaster.

For AoE, 5/5 Learned Spellcaster.

For Human, on Single Target 5/5 Learned Spellcaster.

For Human, on AoE 3/3 Arcane Enhancement and 2 points in Prestidigitation.

Spellstorm:

This section deals with builds for the Spellstorm paragon. This paragon requires more gear than the Master of Flame paragon in order to play well and is more focused on personal damage, at the expense of team damage. Having 100% crit chance is essential to best take advantage of Storm Spell.

Oppressor:

For trash clearing, I recommend using an SS Oppressor loadout in a strong team. The oppressor build is good when you are in a group that has someone else granting combat advantage. The classes which could grant you reliable combat advantage are GF, GWF, HR, SW or another CW.

Thaumaturge (Solo CW):

This is the “greedy dps” build which is great for winning paingiver. Whilst it has better paingiver performance, it has lower team performance. With that being said though I can understand to some extent the mindset for wanting to play as a pure DpS, so here it is.

5/5 Tempest Magic.

5/5 Malevolent Surge.

5/5 Destructive Wizardry on Single Target.

5/5 Elemental Reinforcement.

5/5 Spell Twisting.

3 points in Elemental Empowerment for Single Target, 5/5 for AoE.

1/1 Assailing Force.

5/5 Bitter Cold.

5/5 Brisk Teleport.

2 points in Icy Veins for Single Target, 5 Points Icy Veins for AoE.

Thaumaturge (Multiple CWs):

This is a build aimed specifically around taking advantage of the fact that there is another CW in the group to do more DpS. As this scenario does not occur often, I do not advise having it as a loadout.

Master of Flame:

This section deals with builds in the Master of Flame paragon. This paragon is more support orientated, good for group play and is more forgiving gear wise. Having 100% crit is still important, but less so than for Spellstorm.

Oppressor:

For boss killing in a strong team, MoF Oppressor is a good choice when there is an external source of combat advantage.

Thaumaturge:

I do not recommend playing MoF Thaumaturge, as it is just a worse “pure dps” than the SS Thaum variant and doesn’t really bring anything extra to the table.

Renegade (Support):

The MoF rene support is a good bet in an undergeared party where players do not cap crit, or in a group where there is not reliable Combat Advantage. If there is another CW in the same group who is renegade, it is optimal for 1 of you to switch to Oppressor as Controlled Momentum stacks and Chaos Magic does not.

Renegade (Low Gear):

If you are new to Neverwinter and starting out with CW, this is the route I would go. The renegade tree is great at covering missing statistics but starts to lose out long term as you acquire better gear.

5/5 Reaper’s Touch.

5/5 Critical Power.

5/5 Uncertain Allegiance.

3 points Nightmare Wizardry.

2 points Phantasmal Destruction.

5/5 Chilling Advantage.

1/1 Chaos Magic.

5/5 Tempest Magic.

4 points Malevolent Surge and 1 point Drifting Embers.

Spell Twisting.

Loadouts:

For a new player starting out as a CW, I recommend having the following 2 loadouts:

MoF Rene (DPS, Single Target feats).

MoF Oppressor (Single Target feats).

Since you won’t have much in the way of gear or currency, this will give you the best return on investment.

For an experienced player, who is building a CW and can have access to many loadouts, I recommend having the following:

SS Oppressor (AoE feats).

SS Rene (Both single target and AoE).

MoF Oppressor (Single Target feats).

MoF Rene (Single Target feats).

Those should be the bare, basic, must have loadouts, but these are some other fun loadouts I recommend having if you have the currency to afford them:

SS Oppressor (Single Target feats).

SS Thaum (Single Target feats).

Rotations:

For CW rotations, I would recommend the following, depending on build, circumstance and Paragon path. Keep in mind for Single Target rotations, they are designed with the intention of synchronizing burst with the burst of a dps gf and would have to be adjusted otherwise. However, as most solo content is really easy, I am not providing an alternative. Also, for Single Target, if there is more than a single CW in the party, Ray of Enfeeblement does not stack and 1 CW should switch it out. I recommend Icy Rays on mastery as it gets quite a big buff. In slower groups, or in Castle Ravenloft, switch Chill Strike with Icy Terrain if there is an OP in the group as the bosses will live long enough to take advantage of it. Also, if you are Oppressor, you can consider using Steal Time on Mastery for trash fights in dungeons, purely for the speed buff as Icy Veins will keep up your Chill Stacks.

Single Target MoF Oppressor:

For MoF Oppressor I recommend Ray of Enfeeblement on mastery, Fanning the Flame, Disintegrate and Chill Strike, with the daily power of choice being Ice Knife. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Chilling Presence. Make sure to remain in range of Icy Veins. Your rotation should look something like Scorching to apply Smoulder, Ray of Enfeeblement, Fanning the Flame, Chill Strike (cancel), Disintegrate, Soul Sight Crystal, RoE, Disintegrate, Ice Knife, Fanning the Flame, Chill Strike, with at wills as needed (they fill the gaps when encounters are on cooldown).

Single Target MoF Renegade (Support):

For MoF Renegade I recommend Ray of Enfeeblement on mastery, Fanning the Flame, Disintegrate and Icy Terrain, with the daily power of choice being Oppressive Force. For at wills use Chilling Cloud and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Combustive Action. For rotation, you should use Oppressive Force, Ray of Enfeeblement, Scorching Burst, Icy Terrain, then any other encounters are simply fillers. Cast Oppressive Force whenever it is off cooldown, to keep up Combustive Action.

Single Target MoF Renegade (DPS):

For MoF Renegade in Cradle of the Death God I recommend Conduit of Ice on mastery, Fanning the Flame, Disintegrate and Ray of Enfeeblement, with the daily power of choice being Ice Knife. For at wills use Chilling Cloud and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Chilling Presence. Your rotation should look something like Scorching to apply Smoulder, Conduit of Ice, Ray of Enfeeblement, Fanning the Flame, Disintegrate, Soul Sight Crystal, RoE, Conduit of Ice, Disintegrate, Ice Knife, Fanning the Flame, with at wills as needed (they fill the gaps when encounters are on cooldown). If you are in a fight with a stationary boss you can switch Conduit with Ray of Enfeeblement on mastery and then drop Conduit for Icy Terrain.

Single Target SS Thaum+Opp:

For SS Thaum and Oppressor I recommend Ray of Enfeeblement on mastery, Sudden Storm, Disintegrate and Chill Strike, with the daily power of choice being Ice Knife. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Storm Pillar. For Class Features use Storm Spell and Chilling Presence. Your rotation should look something like Storm Pillar for the Destructive Wizardry buff, Ray of Enfeeblement, Sudden Storm, Chill Strike (cancel), Disintegrate, Soul Sight Crystal, Ray of Enfeeblement, Disintegrate, Ice Knife, Sudden Storm, Chill Strike, with at wills as needed (they fill the gaps when encounters are on cooldown).

Single Target SS Rene:

For SS Renegade I recommend Conduit of Ice on mastery, Sudden Storm, Disintegrate and Ray of Enfeeblement, with the daily power of choice being Ice Knife. For at wills use Chilling Cloud and Storm Pillar. For Class Features use Storm Spell and Chilling Presence. Your rotation should look something like Storm Pillar for the Destructive Wizardry buff, Conduit of Ice, Ray of Enfeeblement, Sudden Storm, Disintegrate, Soul Sight Crystal, Conduit of Ice, Ray of Enfeeblement, Disintegrate, Ice Knife, Sudden Storm, with at wills as needed (they fill the gaps when encounters are on cd).

AoE MoF Oppressor:

For MoF Oppressor I recommend Fanning the Flame on mastery, Steal Time, Disintegrate and Icy Terrain, with the daily power of choice being Oppressive Force. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Chilling Presence. Start with Fanning the Flame from a distance to apply Smoulder, get into range and use Icy Terrain then proceed to use Oppressive Force and Steal Time. Rinse and repeat until monsters are dead.

AoE MoF Rene (Support):

For MoF Oppressor I recommend Fanning the Flame on mastery, Steal Time, Ray of Enfeeblement and Icy Terrain, with the daily power of choice being Oppressive Force. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Combustive Action. Start with Oppressive Force to Smoulder, then Fanning the Flame and Icy Terrain, followed by steal time. Use Ray of Enfeeblement on the biggest target.Rinse and repeat until monsters are dead.

AoE MoF Rene (DpS):

For MoF Renegade I recommend Conduit of Ice on mastery, Fanning the Flame, Disintegrate and Icy Terrain, with the daily power of choice being Oppressive Force. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Scorching Burst. For Class Features use Swath of Destruction and Chilling Presence. Start with Conduit of Ice+a quick cast of Scorching Burst from a distance to apply Chill Stacks and Smoulder. Get into range and use Icy Terrain then proceed to use Fanning the Flame, Oppressive Force and Disintegrate. Rinse and repeat until monsters are dead.

AoE SS (All Builds):

For Spellstorm I recommend Conduit of Ice on mastery, Steal Time, Sudden Storm and Icy Terrain, with the daily power of choice being Oppressive Force. For at wills use Magic Missiles and Storm Pillar. For Class Features use Storm Spell and Chilling Presence. Start with Conduit of Ice at a distance to start building chill stacks, get in range, use Icy Terrain, Oppressive Force, Steal time and then Sudden Storm. Rinse/repeat until everything is dead.

Gear:

For gear in mod 14, I am using the following:

For bosses I switch the DC Sigil for the Soul Sight Crystal. If I had a +5 Shadowstalker, I would use that and I would use the Decanter of Atropal Essence as well on trash if I had it. The Heart of the Black Dragon is also a good trash artifact option. I use Jawrippers as Hag’s Rags and Eyestalk Wrappers do not stack. On my pet I use the following:

For other gear options, see the relevant sections in my mechanics guidehere. Finally, a link to a NW:UN copy of my build as is. Note, the statistics in the pictures about are correct, not the ones in the ratings simulator. Also, I use the Bat Swarm and not the Lion, but I could not find it in the simulator. In terms of what is strictly BiS, the Undead Slayer ring and the blue chest piece you get upon entering Barovia are better than what I am using inside of Castle Ravenloft, however, I would rather balance my stats for all content once, then balance my stats multiple times over for different content.

Finally, for a new player starting out, I recommend using the blue gear provided to you at the start of Ravenloft.

Boons:

My boon choices are the same for all builds. With that being said however, boons are just binary stat choices between 1 thing and another, there is no set “right option” and I recommend you use them to fill out whatever stats you are missing. They are included in the links above, but for those who also want them here, this is a list.

Sharandar, Dread Ring, Icewindale:

Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil, Stronghold:

For stronghold, if you do not have lifesteal on your pet (or a good healer) and struggle to sustain staying alive, you can optionally switch to the lifesteal boon.

I am FNHUSA57. I started playing NeverWinter as a control wizard back in mod 5, it’s now mod 13 (on Xbox & PS4) and time for me to give you my updated build & full guide for the Control Wizard, (getting ready for mod 14). A bit about the CW: This class is very fun […]

For CreepyThinks 🙂 Hi, I’m Josh, my ingame tag is @iamsmokingone#2455 and this is my Devoted Cleric, Parwen Valerian. I didn’t expect the reception this guide has gotten, thanks to all my ingame friends for your support, this is for you guys! Her builds are largely based on Putzboy78’s Amber Gristle O’maul Mod 9 build […]

A Guide to Wizardry PvE Control Wizard Guide – Mod 14 Here’s the link to the complete guide in Google Docs: http://bit.ly/GuideToWizardry Last updates: 16.07.2018 – updated mod 14 gear including Orcus set due to recent fix, updated Smolder section about stacking For all lazy people, below is video with quick look at the feats […]

I’m a bit surprised a “renegade + aoe feats” loadout didn’t made it into the “must have loadouts” section. Either a full support MoF Ren with combustive + swath or a DPS SS Ren.

Also, not sure what the point of a SS Opp Single Target build is for? Doesn’t MoF Opp Single Target do more damage and provide more debuffs? If paingiver was your goal wouldn’t SS Thaum/opp be better? Just not seeing where SS Opp Single Target fits in.

I suppose I should clarify SS Opp. I included it because of cradle. If you are in a group with multiple CWs and 1 of them is already MoF Oppressor, you cannot stack the debuffs, but you can stack controlled momentum. Also, the SS CW gets a free smoulder without actually applying it themself, simply because when smoulder is on a target, if an SS CW attacks it, they generate their own rimefire.

As far as SS rene goes, I thought I had included it and merely forgot. Should be updated now.

For trash clearing when there’s no other reliable source of CA another good option is SS Rene/Opp but it requires enough recovery to not need Spell Twisting (or use of Hearth of the Black Dragon artifact for proccing Artificer’s Persuasion to get recovery that way, personally I use Black Dragon for AoE anyway even though I sit at ~20k recovery). Depending on the group and content it can be better to trade Thaum damage buffs (21.55% from Malevolent Surge and Elemental Reinforcement with 3 elements and another 33.82% from Tempest Magic vs enemies below 30% HP) for immediate 48/96% burst from Chilling Presence thanks to Icy Veins. This is what I run currently for AoE on PS4 (mod 12b) and personally it works for me better than Rene/Thaum. Another benefit is no need to use CoI on mastery for chill so I use Steal Time on mastery for speed buff which is ridiculous and I like to annoy my friend on DC or CW with it.

You could also slot ST on tab and get CA that way as an Oppressor and it also proc Controlled Momentum. Yeah I know the Oppressor is a single target build, but if you want to get the most out of the companion and are not running with a GF, GWF, SW, HR and not playing Renegade ST on tab is another option.

It won’t work. Not only CA from ST on tab is not reliable time wise (short duration and procs on finished casting ST), there’s also a 5 target cap for allies who will get CA and speed buff from it, and it includes companions. So you can’t even give CA to everyone in party because there will always be a companion in the way who will “steal” that CA buff. ST on tab for CA isn’t good, but just for speed buff it’s quite interesting, I use it for AoE on SS Rene/Opp and results are sometimes hilarious with people flying around between groups of mobs, plus it also speeds up a bit all running parts of dungeon.

Have you considered the possibility of not taking any capstone and just taking feats from all three trees? My good friend arcodog says this is the most bestest way to do damage, and he’s a very good CW he says.

p.s. Thanks for the cookie cutter build I don’t have time to read things anymore 😀

The only issue I have with your build is that you list a SS Rene build for those who have 4 loadouts. I mean I can see a SS Thaum build for solo along with the SS Oppressor and the two MoF builds but no real need for a SS Renegade build. If there was another loadout, yes SS Rene would make sense for the player to stack Chaos Magic with a MoF Rene but otherwise four loadouts I recommend going with the solo SS Thaum build.

It does and I have. It is kind of irritating to grind for all the makos gear though, due to the time restriction. I tested all the other gear as well, when I am feeling less lazy I will update my mechanics guide with the results.

I was able to get the ring of offensive action within 2 days of the content coming out. I farm the Thayan area every 30 minutes and like clockwork I got a Lich Lore which allowed me to turn it in for a Mako Favor. I could have done it in a day but I needed sleep. After that I spent some time farming for hunts to get the arms. I have done that hunt now 10x with only one purple item dropping and that was the T3 trophy. The rest of the loot from the T2 hunt has been +2 blue rings. Worst drop rate out of all of the new hunts.

As for the armor of quick recovery, I’m already at 15 mako favors this week and that is without trying and it only reset two days ago. With double enchantment I been farming T9 to get some UES so I can upgrade my enchantments.

As for the comp gear – I am using the ring of the grave striker +4, fierce neck +4 and primal assault ring. Is the fierce neck +4 and primal assault ring a good alternative to use vs. the bold neck with the beaded ring?

My favorite build you have it the Opp/Thaum multi target followed by the MoF Opp/Thaum single target.

I’m currently running Trans Vorpal. I do plan to get a Fey soon. What is the variance between the two enchantments? Are we talking 10-15% or are we talking under 5%? I seem to be good on multi targets; even beating out other CW that use the Fey but on bosses I get beat by a bit. Is it worth having both and running Vorpal on adds and Fey on bosses?

Thanks a ton for both this summary of your guide and your long detailed guide. I’ve been shoveling the long version into my brain and this helps to digest it. I’m a 9800 ilvl CW with 51% crit and 23% armor penetration and low recovery.

I am mostly focused on solo content for catching up on all the campaigns and running heroic dungeons on the side. I only have access to 2 loadouts and want to save my current one as a fallback in case this switch fails miserably. For that purpose, I think an AoE MoF Renegade is the best fit based on your work. Is this on track? If so, why does the AoE DPS MoF Renegade rotation and talents suggest nothing that spreads smoulder very quickly and includes two heavy hitting single target spells (non-mastery fanning the flames and disintegrate)? My guess is because AoE in end-game AoE is vastly different than apprentices such as myself melting casual trash…

So with solo content in mind for a low-mid gear wizard, I’m guessing I want something to spread both chill and smoulder stacks across more than 1 target very quickly. I’m looking at these options to build both chill and smoulder stacks ASAP:
– icy terrain for chill stacks and fanning the flame in mastery slot without icy veins
– conduit of ice in mastery slot with icy terrain and rely on scorching burst to spread smolder (understanding there will be a delay casting scorching burst up front or at the end of the first rotation) without icy veins
– conduit of ice in mastery slot and icy terrain for building chill stacks without icy veins, sacrificing tempest magic for drifting embers to spread smolder and picking up spell twisting to make up for recovery

The best option so far seems like the last one presented with drifting embers. Your guide says those two cold spells should negate the need for icy veins, which I am heavily relying on for survivability especially in Well of Dragons (and hopefully beyond). The plan for rotation is conduit of ice, flash a scorching burst at the big guy in the pack to add smoulder, icy terrains when the distance is closed, steal time, then I have a wildcard for the last encounter power. Obviously I’ll drop oppressive force as able, but I currently don’t have the action point gain to make it a part of my rotation. The class features will be swath of destruction with chilling presence.

The wildcard could be shield if I need a little more survivability in solo play. It could be disintegrate or fanning the flame to burn the big guy in the pack. Or swap in ray of enfeeblement for utility in group play (for ex, heroic encounter where there is nowhere to swap the loadout). Shard of the endless avalanche for even more AoE.

Am I about to screw myself? Is this a decent interpretation of all the information you’ve put together for my use case? Where can I make adjustments?

Oh no, I misread drifting embers, not correctly understanding that it applies to targets affected by fanning the flame. This invalidates much of what I wrote above, especially about the wildcard since drifting embers would lock a wizard into fanning the flame. Back to the drawing board with me ;(

Hey! Yes, I was primarily relying on Drifting Embers for spreading smoulder and only a few AoE powerts, however, what you could do is drop disintegrate for Steal Time if you are struggling. The main survival tool of CW, especially for soloing with poor gear is learning to time your CC effects. Whilst you can chain abilities back to back, if you are struggling to survive, it can be better to space out the casts, this way monsters remain CCd for longer periods of time and spend less time damaging you.

Thanks man! I really appreciate your feedback and coaching. Sorry to take so long to get back to you.

I tried MoF Renegade and immediately didn’t like the playstyle (managing smou?lder is a pain point for me). I tried Spellstorm Renegade and that was very cool. I do think it is an improvement over Thaumaturge with icy veins.

At 10.4K item level, I’m having a lot of trouble soloing tier 3 heroic encounters in Icewind Pass and Well of Dragons. Anecdotally, I can’t control or DPS fast enough before I get overwhelmed. Is this normal for my character’s progression or does it indicate that I am doing something wrong? Abilities used are oppressive force, conduit of ice on mastery, icy terrain, steal time and sudden storm with chilling presence and stormspell for passives. I tried swapping stormspell for controlling orb but the loss in dps for control just prolongs the inevitable.

I have one question. Is there a reason you take the feat Twisting Immolation as a MoF Opp boss killer?
If this feat is really just a filler, I offer a really small, insignificant, piece of advice.

The feat “Severe Reaction” (I think it is called LOL) provides a nice “refill” of some stamina.
It really seems to proc for me quite often, and it seems to have nice synergy with the Enduring Boots.
The repel effect is also a non-issue imo. Bosses wont be repelled (CC immune) and adds barely move when it procs.
I know most boss fights we have our feet planted as the Neverwinter’s “end-game” content is quite a joke…
However, there are a few cases (parties) where i need to dodge a few of the boss’s attacks. Wouldn’t that feat provide a better utility with those boots?

Again, I know that this is completely insignificant. However, I also think that you have an explanation for everything lol!
So lmk when you have a chance.

Hey! Twisting Immolation vs Severe Reaction is something that comes down to personal choice. I prefer Twisting, in the event that I am playing a pseudo support as combustive action then plays a role, however, if you do not foresee yourself doing that then for sure, you can take severe reaction.

Hmm. What shall I do with her Legendary cloak and belt? If I convert to RP, it might make me cry! Maybe save it in the bank in case Crowd Control ever becomes a thing again. Who knows, they might make Bosses have 90 to 99% CCR instead of 100% immunity. Freezing them even for 0.1 seconds might help if it interrupted or delayed their animations!

What notable changes to gear/enchants do you expect in m14 and what will be the best way to meet the new 100% armpen cap? Also curious about the golden lion combat power choice since it seems a lot of groups ask for t-rexes for the stacking debuff. Do you think the new swarm power will become the best choice? Thanks for everything.

Thanks very much. I’m really curious about an idea of the most effective way to meet 100% armpen. Will it come naturally in m14 gear or will enchants and artifacts need tweaking. I’m gearing up during the summer event and cautious about making a major investment in enchants if perhaps a few black ice would be traded for demonics for example. Or maybe its as simple as trading Valhalla horn for lantern, etc. Any insight is much appreciated.

Dear Sharp, first of all thanks a lot for all the very valuable information provided on my favorite class : CW. I’m still a beginner around 10k not even at the budget CW set but working on it. Now since I need to progress in some of the high level campaign such as Storm King’s Thunder, Lost city of Omu, Cloaked Ascendancy, Tomb of Annihilation, Can you please tell me which mod13-14 loadout you recommend for solo dps to progress those campaigns (without a groupe obviously) ? so far I have the only one you don’t recommend (MoF Thaum :-). I’m around 50% critic in stats at this point. For group, I think I will take the MoF Rene for support. thanks in advance. .

I just want to ask you, if you checked new neck and waist (for character) from new modul? Do you think, that is there something better than MW3 set?
Bcs, Im looking on all new sets now and Idk, Im not sure, if is smt better. I still like MW3 set.

Thanks for the awesome build, I just have one question. I’m sort of in between recommended gear at the moment. I’m running the pure DPS Thaum / Opp build you put up and I was going to aim for the budget build for now. I’ve noticed that as of now my critical chance seems extremely low. I had a vorp but was advised to swap it out for a greater lightening instead and I think that didn’t help things. I know you suggested to use Moonbow as the summoned companion and that’s due to the crit chance % increase, but I already have a Chult Tiger. Would you suggest I use Moobow for the time being and wait until I can get the better gear before using the tiger as my summoned companion?

You need to tweak your build. I’m sitting at 17.5K IL and I get around 80K power, 13K recovery and 100% in both Defense Ignore and Critical Chance. Of course my character has both the +5 and +4 Grave Striker and Shadow Stalker rings. I also use all black Ice on my companion and use Demonic on my character to achieve max power and defense ignored stats. All of my mount insignas are domiance for additional power and companion stats. I use the decanter for my primal artifact with the others being Eye of the Giant, Sigil of the GWF and Horn of Vah. I get a nice mixture of stats and HP from these artifacts. From my in game runs, the Soul Sight tends to be a DPS loss for me in content as I tend to also miss the buff window or I get knocked/pushed away after using it making it less effective than the Decanter.

I got bored recently and took a break. My biggest gripe is as a full on Thaum DPS my damage is not that much higher than when I run as a Opp SS AoE for adds and MoF Opp on bosses. It is kinda sad that the CW has been regulated to being a DPS buffer but our damage is still outshined by a GF, HR, GWF, and any other class that is able to provide a buff and do decent damage. The only class that irks me at the moment is the buglock. The devs need to fix that crap, as it is getting old.

It is quite possible to get more offensive statistics then this, which I did not deny at any point, especially if you use a fierce neck and have a gravestriker 5. The boots, gloves, orcus set and at least 1 shadowstriker I consider mandatory, due to the percentages. As far as the chest and 1 ring goes, the undead or ravenloft specific stuff is an option. I don’t really think it is worth switching out the loyal avenger neck for a minor dps increase though, considering I like to do things like solo fbi/sp and having the extra lifesteal in those situations is nice, vs the ~2-4% more damage I could additionally have.

I am not really a fan of the decanter myself, for trash at the moment I run heart of the black dragon and I feel it is by far the strongest option, just the movement speed alone makes it outclass the rest. On bosses in the groups I tend to run endgame content with, Soul Sight is an obvious choice.

Hey man, first of all ty for all the work you’ve put into this, Just to be sure, ss opp-thaum is better for thrash mobs because of it’s in.group performance while ss thaum-opp deals more damage and so is better for solo content; did I get it right? Or is ss opp-thaum better in both cases? I ask because I’ve seen people argue that shatter strike ends up providing more damage than the thaum feats.

When looking over your boons on storm kings thunder the second boon under northern survivor you have the names of the boobs switched. You have them labeled as heal up and stamped down selecting the down option however the actual order is Stam is up and heal is down. So since I see you went down does this mean you selected heal?

Will this guide be updated for mod 15? I see many changes coming to the CW and was wondering if you would be updating this guide or making a new one given all the changes. Am I mistaken that for CW our DPS build went from Thaum in mod 12 to Opp in mod 13 and 14 and now will be Renegade. That just makes no sense but whatever.